Last month Smart Politics conducted a case study as to how one Minnesota lawmaker, Republican Representative Laura Brod, utilized the social networking site Twitter during the last legislative session. That study found the plurality of Rep. Brod's tweets were about substantive policy issues, with approximately one-sixth about her own personal life.

In the second part of this series about the use of Twitter by political officeholders, Smart Politics attempts to quantify the extent to which Minnesota lawmakers are using Twitter as a means to exert some political influence or garner some cache among the electorate.

Who is leaving the biggest Twitter footprint on state politics? And which political party is tweeting the most?

Twitter, to be sure, is only in its infancy as both a social networking site, but also a political tool. While half of Minnesota's U.S. House delegation uses Twitter (or congressional staff in the Representative's name) - Erik Paulsen, Keith Ellison, Michele Bachmann, and Jim Oberstar - the percentage is much less among Minnesota's state legislators.

Among state senators, Smart Politics was able to confirm the existence of just six Twitter accounts, or 9 percent of the 67-member body, with five of these accounts being actively used ('active use' is defined here very broadly, constituting at least one tweet during 2009).

Meanwhile, in the lower chamber, almost twice as many state representatives use Twitter: 17 percent, or 23 of 134 representatives.

But both state senators and representatives are using Twitter at a much greater rate than the public generally. According to an April 2009 Harris Poll, just 5 percent of Americans use Twitter.

Smart Politics also found some surprising numbers upon examining Twitter use among Minnesota lawmakers by political party.

Nationwide, Democrats have historically been seen as the political party most effectively using new technologies on the Internet - crystallized by the remarkable campaign fundraising of 2004 Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean and the mobilization of support via online networks during Barack Obama's 2008 victorious presidential campaign.

In Minnesota, however, Democrats do not hold such an advantage in the land of Twitter. Despite having fewer members in each delegation, Republican lawmakers line up an equal number of Twitter users as DFLers in the U.S. House (2 each) and State Senate (3 each). In the State House, 17 percent of both the GOP (8 of 47) and DFL (15 of 87) caucuses have active Twitter accounts.

Additionally, there are more followers to these 13 Republican state and federal lawmakers (13,742) than those following the 20 DFLers (10,646), although Michele Bachmann accounts for more than half of the GOP tally with her 7,900+ followers.

Still, even after taking U.S. Representatives out of the equation, state Republican lawmakers average more followers to their Twitter accounts (325), than do DFLers (318).

Among those six Senators who have Twitter accounts, four are currently campaigning for a higher office: DFL Senator John Marty and Republican Senators Mike Jungbauer and David Hann are running for governor, while DFL Senator Tarryl Clark is running for Michele Bachmann's 6th Congressional District seat.

The only other senators with Twitter accounts are DFLer Scott Dibble and Republican Minority Leader Dave Senjem. Senjem's account, however, seems to be just a placeholder, as he has zero tweets to his name to date.

Thus, of the five senators who actively use Twitter, four are running for higher office. This selective use of Twitter by state senators suggests they deem Twitter to be a valuable tool in their efforts to expand support beyond their current districts to the larger electorate they must court in 2010.

However, as Twitter is in its infancy, and its strategic effects have not been rigorously studied, it is also possible that high profile candidates simply do not want to seem 'out of touch,' or potentially missing out on a marketing opportunity with an unknown payoff as they endeavor to expand their base of support in their 2010 campaigns.

And which Minnesota legislators have the most Twitter followers?

· Among the U.S. House delegation, Republican Michele Bachmann leads the way with over 7,900 followers, followed by Keith Ellison (3,455), Erik Paulsen (2,308), and Jim Oberstar (1,466). (Minnesota's other recently-elected Representative, Tim Walz, utilizes Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, and YouTube, but not Twitter).

· In the Minnesota Senate, Tarryl Clark is on top with 716, followed by John Marty (608), David Hann (215), Scott Dibble (55), and Mike Jungbauer (52). (Minority Leader Senjem has 14 followers, even though he is tweetless).

· Of the 23 Minnesota House members who Twitter, the most followed Representatives are two of the biggest names in the chamber: DFL Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kelliher leads with 919 followers, while former Republican Minority Leader (and 2010 gubernatorial hopeful) Marty Seifert is in second with 654. Rep. Laura Brod is third at 644, with DFL gubernatorial candidate Paul Thissen fifth (453), DFL Majority Leader Tony Sertich sixth (449), and new GOP Minority Leader Kurt Zellers eighth (355).

But are these state lawmakers really using Twitter?

A Smart Politics analysis suggests that many members of the House are indeed putting the social networking site to use. But the senators? Not so much.

The six senators with Twitter accounts have only generated 108 tweets to date, or an average of 18 per senator. Tarryl Clark has the most with 39.

Meanwhile, the average number of tweets on the House side is nearly six times that amount, at 104 per member. (Note: data was calculated for the 21 members of the House whose updates are made available to the public; the updates for DFL Rep. Nora Slawik and GOP Rep. Steve Gottwalt are 'protected').

Rep. Laura Brod, the subject of Smart Politics' analysis last month, remains the Twitter Queen among Minnesota lawmakers, leading all state (and federal) lawmakers with 351 tweets since joining Twitter on March 21st of this year.

Brod is followed by DFLer John Lesch (238), and Republicans Paul Kohls (234) and Marty Seifert (188).

Overall, Republican lawmakers are tweeting much more than their DFL counterparts. Across Minnesota state and federal lawmakers, Republicans have issued an average of 113.4 tweets per user, compared to an average of just 77.8 for the DFL.

Number of Tweets by Minnesota Lawmakers

Lawmaker

District

Party

Tweets

Laura Brod

HD 25A

GOP

351

John Lesch

HD 66A

DFL

238

Paul Kohls

HD 34A

GOP

234

Marty Seifert

HD 21A

GOP

188

Michele Bachmann

CD 6

GOP

185

Erik Paulsen

CD 3

GOP

178

Jeremy Kalin

HD 17B

DFL

173

Tina Liebling

HD 30A

DFL

144

Margaret A. Kelliher

HD 60A

DFL

116

Keith Ellison

CD 5

DFL

97

Matt Dean

HD 52B

GOP

93

Paul Thissen

HD 63A

DFL

91

Larry Hosch

HD 14B

DFL

89

Jim Oberstar

CD 8

DFL

86

Tony Sertich

HD 05B

DFL

82

Al Juhnke

HD 13B

DFL

67

Marsha Swails

HD 56B

DFL

63

Jeff Hayden

HD 61B

DFL

57

Karla Bigham

HD 57A

DFL

54

Terry Morrow

HD 23A

DFL

51

Tarryl Clark

SD 15

DFL

39

Pat Garofalo

HD 36B

GOP

31

Keith Downey

HD 41A

GOP

31

Michael Jungbauer

SD 48

GOP

28

Kurt Zellers

HD 32B

GOP

22

David Hann

SD 42

GOP

20

John Marty

SD 54

DFL

20

Erin Murphy

HD 64A

DFL

9

Scott Dibble

SD 60

DFL

1

Michael Paymar

HD 64B

DFL

1

Dave Senjem

SD 29

GOP

0

Steve Gottwalt

HD 15A

GOP

N/A

Nora Slawik

HD 55B

DFL

N/A

Total

2,839

Note: Through August 26, 2009. Data compiled by Smart Politics.

The extent to which officeholders are using Twitter beyond getting their own message out to the public via tweets is unknowable.

For example, are lawmakers using Twitter to receive information as well?

One rough gauge to measure this officeholder interest in other Twitter user updates is to examine the number of people these lawmakers are following in their own right.

The shorthand calculus for this, however, may seem counterintuitive at first blush, for, in actuality, the more individuals one follows, the less less likely updates are being closely monitored by the follower.

For example, Michele Bachmann 'follows' nearly 7,400 people on her official Twitter page. To put that in perspective, Smart Politics follows only 26 individuals on Twitter, and received 196 updates from those 26 individuals during the last 24 hours.

By following 284 times that number of individuals, how likely is it that Rep. Bachmann (or her staff) sifted through any of the estimated 55,000+ updates that cross her Twitter account each day?

But not all lawmakers follow that pattern, as evidenced by Smart Politics' calculation of each Twitter users' following-to-follower ratio:

· U.S. Representative Keith Ellison leads the way with an 88.6 to 1 ratio (3,455 followers, while following only 39).

· Seven other lawmakers likewise have ratios greater than 10 to 1, including Jim Oberstar, at 30.5 to 1). Republican Rep. Pat Garofalo has the highest ratio at the State Capitol - following just 12 individuals, but being courted by 276 followers, for a 23:1 ratio.

· Six lawmakers, including Republican gubernatorial hopeful David Hann, are following more individuals than the number of individuals following them.

Ratio of Twitter Followers vs. Twitter Following Among Minnesota Lawmakers

Lawmaker

District

Party

Followers

Following

Ratio

Keith Ellison

CD 5

DFL

3,455

39

88.59

Jim Oberstar

CD 8

DFL

1,466

48

30.54

Pat Garofalo

HD 36B

GOP

276

12

23.00

Marty Seifert

HD 21A

GOP

654

29

22.55

Scott Dibble

SD 60

DFL

55

3

18.33

Terry Morrow

HD 23A

DFL

220

13

16.92

Paul Kohls

HD 34A

GOP

495

30

16.50

Margaret A. Kelliher

HD 60A

DFL

919

84

10.94

Laura Brod

HD 25A

GOP

644

70

9.20

Paul Thissen

HD 63A

DFL

453

66

6.86

Tina Liebling

HD 30A

DFL

215

33

6.52

Keith Downey

HD 41A

GOP

196

34

5.76

Tony Sertich

HD 05B

DFL

449

84

5.35

John Marty

SD 54

DFL

608

151

4.03

Marsha Swails

HD 56B

DFL

244

71

3.44

Matt Dean

HD 52B

GOP

268

83

3.23

Larry Hosch

HD 14B

DFL

280

89

3.15

Steve Gottwalt

HD 15A

GOP

84

29

2.90

John Lesch

HD 66A

DFL

428

171

2.50

Karla Bigham

HD 57A

DFL

240

99

2.42

Kurt Zellers

HD 32B

GOP

355

155

2.29

Michael Jungbauer

SD 48

GOP

52

34

1.53

Jeff Hayden

HD 61B

DFL

188

163

1.15

Erik Paulsen

CD 3

GOP

2,308

2,039

1.13

Michele Bachmann

CD 6

GOP

7,911

7,373

1.07

Tarryl Clark

SD 15

DFL

714

698

1.02

Jeremy Kalin

HD 17B

DFL

188

195

0.96

David Hann

SD 42

GOP

215

225

0.96

Al Juhnke

HD 13B

DFL

124

154

0.81

Nora Slawik

HD 55B

DFL

51

64

0.80

Erin Murphy

HD 64A

DFL

332

562

0.59

Michael Paymar

HD 64B

DFL

17

39

0.44

Dave Senjem

SD 29

GOP

14

0

Note: Through August 26, 2009. Data compiled by Smart Politics.

But for those lawmakers that are following a more 'manageable' amount of individuals, some interesting tidbits arise.

For example, one of the Republican gubernatorial frontrunners, Marty Seifert, is following several of his Republican and DFL rivals among the scant 29 individuals he is following, including Pat Anderson, David Hann, Michael Jungbauer, Matt Entenza, Mark Dayton, and Margaret Anderson Kelliher. Perhaps Rep. Seiftert is using Twitter as a timely (and inexpensive) way to keep tabs on his competition?

And then there is House Majority Leader Tony Sertich. A quick glance through the individuals Sertich follows on Twitter clearly reveals his love for basketball - with Shaquille O'Neal, Steve Nash, Kevin Love, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, and NBA analyst Ric Bucher among the 84 individuals he is following.

Interesting, perhaps, but not as interesting as the fact that among the 84 individuals Sertich follows is cult filmmaker David Lynch! Who knew one of Minnesota's leading lawmakers had such an avant-garde streak?

Overall, Republicans seem to be standing toe-to-toe with the DFL in the Twitter universe and then some:

· A greater percentage of Republican lawmakers are on Twitter.
· Republicans are sending out more tweets on average than DFLers.
· Republicans also have a higher average number of followers on Twitter among both the state and federal lawmaking delegations.

Whether or not the road to majority party status in 2010 for the GOP is paved with tweets remains to be seen.

4 Comments

Michael Brodkorb and a lot of the GOP staff use twitter to stay in touch-- it's a great tool in politics. Although the Dems are seen as "hip and cool"- I predict that Republicans will better use this technology because of our focus on individual liberty and free-thinking. We don't need to check with other people- or our leadership- in order to put something "out there." The Democrats are truly the top-down party...and Republicans will continue to move away from that. It may be a bit chaotic (for a while) but eventually we'll come out stronger because of these types of communication tools. It lets us communicate free of media filters and bias. Thank God for technology.

Collin Peterson remarked last month that he is leaning to run for reelection to Minnesota's 7th Congressional District in 2016. If he does and is victorious, he will creep even closer to the top of the list of the longest-serving U.S. Representatives in Minnesota history. The DFL congressman is only the sixth Minnesotan to win at least 13 terms to the U.S. House of the 135 elected to the chamber in state history. Peterson trails 18-term DFLer Jim Oberstar (1975-2011), 16-term Republicans Harold Knutson (1917-1949) and August Andresen (1925-1933; 1935-1958), and 14-term DFLers Martin Sabo (1979-2007) and John Blatnik (1947-1974). Andresen died in office, Sabo and Blatnik retired, and Knutson and Oberstar were defeated at the ballot box in 1948 and 2010 respectively. At 70 years, 7 months, 11 days through Monday, Peterson is currently the ninth oldest Gopher State U.S. Representative in history. DFLer Rick Nolan of the 8th CD is the seventh oldest at 71 years, 1 month, 23 days.

Congressman Nick Rahall's failed bid for a 20th term in West Virginia this cycle, combined with a narrow loss by Nick Casey to Alex Mooney in Shelley Moore Capito's open seat, means that West Virginia Democrats will be shut out of the state's U.S. House delegation for the first time in over 90 years. The Republican sweep by two-term incumbent David McKinley in the 1st CD, Mooney in the 2nd, and Evan Jenkins over Rahall in the 3rd marks the first time the GOP has held all seats in the chamber from West Virginia since the Election of 1920. During the 67th Congress (1921-1923) all six seats from the state were controlled by the GOP. Since the Election of 1922, Democrats have won 76 percent of all U.S. House elections in the Mountain State - capturing 172 seats compared to 54 for the GOP.